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Talking Trickstuff

Team Singletrack caught up with German precision engineering company Trickstuff this summer, in its hidden factory deep in a German housing estate.

WE WORK HERE

WORDS HANNAH AND WIL PHOTOGRAPHY JAMES VINCENT

We’re not the first to follow the ‘Trickstuff’ signs offthe main thoroughfare into the residential side street – others before us have followed them in search of top hats, magic wands, and loaded decks of cards. While those expecting a magic shop may have been disappointed, we will not be – what is contained within this building is every bit as fascinating as any magic show. Surrounded by affluent-looking homes with sunloungers on terraces, it might seem like a funny location for the HQ of a bike company, but Klaus, the owner of Trickstuff, says he likes the natural security of being in a residential area. Stepping inside and meeting the team, we also suspect that the pace of life here in the side streets is a far better match than some industrial zone on the edge of town. As we’ll discover, Trickstuff brings together German engineering and precision, but with an approach to life and happiness that might be considered much more Mediterranean.

Trickstuff began life in 2003, founded by an engineer from Tune, who wanted to do something with bikes, but didn’t know what. A chance meeting at Eurobike with a brake pad engineer – who designed brakes for cars, trains and planes, but liked bikes – led to the establishment of a company in Munich producing Cleg brakes. For anyone Scottish, you may not be surprised to see that the logo of this company was a big fly. Why you’d want to name your company after a horrible biting fly that leaves a swollen weeping sore behind, neither Klaus nor us are too sure… maybe because it’s good for your brakes to have bite?

Brakes with bite?

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Find the complete article and many more in this issue of
Singletrack
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116

About Singletrack

Don’t Look Down! – Pete Scullion takes a precarious trip across the lesser-ridden ridges of the Alps.
Trail Hunter: Tom Fenton tells you why Cross Fell and High Cup Nick need to be on your must-ride list. Just bring sandwiches. Lots of them.
Bike Test: Full suspension XC bikes. – Three long-legged ride/race bikes from Giant, Specialized and Scott
Group Test – David Hayward tests sub-£1500 carbon wheelsets. At this price, they’re still a major investment, so we’ve done our best to thrash them all.
Editor’s Choice – We pick the products, places and events that have left an impression on us this year. From bike races to gears and gadgets. This is the stuff we really rate!
Room 101 – Charlie takes a look at your complaints and throws them into Room 101 if there’s due cause. And if there isn’t, he throws you in instead.
Column – Our award winning columnist Jason Miles brings us more pearls of wisdom and wit.
Porage People – Bike race meets survival challenge meets Scrabble and It’s a Knockout! Welcome to the weird world of the invitational (Wo)Man of Porage bike race.
Classic Ride: The Purbeck Hills – Tom Hutton shows us that south coast riding is far from flat. It’s not always sunny there either.
Trickstuff: Singletrack travelled to Germany to see the surprisingly low-key, family-like atmosphere at Trickstuff, producers of some of the world’s most precisely engineered brakes and components.
Column – Lifecycle of a Riding Spot: a tragedy told in 11 chapters. Antony de Heveningham charts the rise and fall, rise and fall of your local woods.